A Seersucker in Hollywood

Joseph Haspel (1884-1959) was an American haberdasher in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the inventor of the seersucker suit, a welcomed attire for Southern businessmen. With his brother Harry, he co-founded Haspel Brothers in 1909. The word seersucker is derived from the Persian words “sheer” and “shakkar,” meaning milk and sugar. What makes the fabric so light and airy is the combination of smooth and bumpy (milk and sugar) texture that allows the fabric to lift away from the skin to breathe. Originally, sometimes perceived as lower-end, unpressed suits, with today's wide variety of styles and colors, it is now a fashion symbol for the elite.

Gregory Peck was the first to wear a seersucker suit in a Hollywood film, in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Famed Illinois Central Streamliner

The Panama Limited was a passenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of the Illinois Central Railroad, it took its name from the Panama Canal, which in 1911 was three years from completion. The train epitomized Streamliner passenger service beginning in 1942 with the first diesel/electric-powered run on an 18-hour schedule. The train shaved nearly two hours off this schedule by the late Forties. The Panama Limited carried a new orange and brown paint scheme that later became standard on Illinois Central passenger trains. The earlier units included two, upper-level yellow stripes on the lead engine. The Illinois Central Railroad last ran the Panama Limited in 1971, one day before Amtrak took over, dropping the Panama Limited in favor of its former daytime counterpart, the City of New Orleans. 

The Panama LImted is shown above leaving Chicago around 1960.